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SERBS(®American Serbs) (central and western part of the Balkan Peninsula, South-East
Europe)
“Old people take great offence when children speak or write licentious
words. One day a peasant visited the school and found the teacher beating his
son. When the teacher told him that he was punishing his son because he had
written bad words on the wall, the peasant answered: “Can that be written in
letters too? Kill him, sir, please!” (Pavlovic, 1973)[1].
On
the other hand, Pavlovic found that “[s]ome peasants do not know what sights
female children should not witness. I once saw a peasant holding a mare and
forcing his daughter-in-law and his daughter to drive the stallion to service
it”.
According
Halpern’s (1967)[2] study of the community
of Orasac in the heart of traditional Old Serbia, “[t]he physical changes
that accompany adolescence are regarded with secrecy and shame, in keeping
with the severely repressive attitude toward sex. Information about
menstruation is learned from other girls at school and not at home. After the
onset, however, mothers, grandmothers, and aunts are full of advice and folk
remedies which they readily pass on”.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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